Bellie, Giuseppe Joachino

Giuseppe Joachino was born in Rome in a petty-bourgeois family. His father, an official of the papal curia , moved for business purposes to Civitavecchia, where he subsequently died of cholera . Belly, together with his mother and his two brothers, returned to Rome, where he settled in a modest apartment on Corso Street. He began his career as a writer with works in Italian: in choosing a language, he followed the advice of his friend and poet Francesco Spada.

Having devoted several years to literature in almost round poverty, in 1816 he married Maria Conti, a wealthy lady much older than him. This profitable marriage allowed Bellie to fully engage in literature without any kind of material restraint. In 1824, the couple had a son, Ciro. Bellie was given the opportunity to travel to Northern and Central Italy, where he plunged into the incomparably more developed literary world than Rome, on an environment susceptible to the teachings of the French Enlightenment and the revolutionary ideas of that period, which were completely absent in his native Rome. Despite the harsh satirical and often religious hatreds that can be found in his sonnets (he called the bishops “lousy thieves” and Pope Pius VIII “raunchy and stuffed with pork”), Belly’s political position has always remained conservative throughout his life.

During the revolution in Rome and the subsequent proclamation of the Roman Republic in 1849 , Belly immediately sided with the pope, defending his unshakable right to the Roman throne.

After the death of his wife in 1837 , the financial affairs of the poet noticeably worsened. In his last years, Belly was disappointed in life, having an indestructible dislike for the world and life around him, and he said more than once that "he, as a poet, has already died." It is no coincidence that by this time his work began to rapidly diminish: his last sonnet was dated to 1849 .

Towards the end of his life, Belli worked as an art and political censor for the papal government. During this period, for example, he banned the works of Shakespeare and criticized the music of Verdi and Rossini .

Giuseppe Joachino Belli died in Rome in 1863 from a heart attack.

Depicted on a 1991 Italian postage stamp.

Belli became famous mainly for his unique poetic work in the Roman dialect. He created more than two thousand sonnets, which are an invaluable monument to papal Rome of the 19th century and the life of a commoner in this city. Sonnets date back to the time period between 1830 and 1839 . Belli carefully hid them from the general public, and a few days before his death even asked his friend, priest Vincenzo Tizani, to burn them. Fortunately, the priest decided to give them to the poet’s son, Ciro, who immediately took care of the first edition of his father’s creative heritage, which finally became available in 1866 .

The most distinctive feature of Bellie's sonnets is their striking, spontaneous sense of humor and their sharp, constant ability to inexorable laughter to criticize the vicious sides of Roman society. In addition, several sonnets show an unambiguous interest in erotic issues.

Despite the not merciless attacks on the moral decline of the Roman Church and Roman society in general, even the most poignant sonnets of Belli do not hurt the aesthetic feelings of readers thanks to the author’s skill and rare realism in describing events.

• Roman sonnets / Per. with ital. E. Solonovich . M .: New Publishing House, 2012

• Giuseppe Joachino Belli in the Journal Hall
• “The owner of the coffeehouse speaks” translation of the sonnet “Er caffettiere fisolofo”